87 million 4G devices are expected to be sold in 2012, says ABI Research. With 294% year-on-year increase, 4G subscriptions are really going to take off in 2012. LTE will take major share of this market as WiMAX is running out of favor from vendors and operators.

LTE smartphones will top 65 million units in 2012 and will help push the total royalty 14% higher in 2012, says ABI Research. Mobile wireless royalties for GSM, WCDMA, and LTE smartphones were just under $20 billion in 2011. LTE handsets will make only total 4% of the total handsets shipped in 2012 however total royalty revenue will be higher.

Recently published GSA report confirms that 63 manufacturers have announced 347 LTE-enabled user devices so far. In 2011. around 250 new LTE user devices were added. GSA further says that the number of smartphones has increased by one third since January 2012. The number of LTE-capable tablets increased 72% in the same period.

Global LTE phone shipments will grow tenfold from 6.8 million units in 2011 to reach 67 million units in 2012, Strategy Analytics said last week. Companies leading the growth spurt will include Apple, Samsung, HTC and others. Major countries driving LTE growth this year will include the United States, Japan and South Korea.

According to IHS iSuppli, the new iPad is more expensive to produce than the iPad 2 at the time of product launch, even though the retail price points are the same. The 32GB LTE model’s bill of materials (BOM) is nearly 9 percent higher than an iPad 2 equipped with 32GB and 3G wireless, which carried a cost of approximately $335 at the time of product launch.

Qualcomm's next generation Gobi modem chipsets will begin sampling in Q4 2012 and will support both HSPA+ Release 10 & LTE Advanced. The new chipsets will support LTE carrier aggregation and true LTE Category 4 with data rates of up to 150 Mbps.